Interviews

BlitWorks has ported some big indie titles to Wii U. The studio just brought Super Meat Boy to the eShop last month, and previously worked on Don’t Starve as well as Badland. They’re not stopping there though. BlitWorks is currently cooking up Wii U versions of the Metroid-esque Axiom Verge and the F-Zero-inspired racer The Next Penelope.

We recently caught up with BlitWorks co-founder Ángel Horna to learn more about BlitWorks and what it’s like porting games to Wii U. Horna spoke about why the eShop version of Super Meat Boy wasn’t an entirely easy task (and how it came about in the first place), gave updates on The Next Penelope as well as Axiom Verge, and much more.

About a year ago, PlayEveryWare published Elliot Quest on Wii U eShop. The company then announced last July that the game, which was well-received by players and critics, would be ported to additional platforms, including 3DS.

We recently caught up with PlayEveryWare’s Thomas O’Connor for a status update on the portable version and to reflect on the experience of bringing the game to Wii U. O’Connor also spoke about a couple of other projects that have kept the company busy.

Temple of Yog is a game about human sacrifice, it’s a tightly controlling roguelike temple crawler, and it just might be the sleeper hit of the fall for the Wii U eShop. I had a chance to play the game and talk with lead designer Cody Diefenthaler at IndieCade Festival 2015.

Temple of Yog is, at its core, a top-down dungeon crawler with a colorful and detailed pixel art style. The controls are relatively simple – left stick to move, right stick to aim and attack. But things get interesting when you begin to encounter the multiple interconnected systems that add a tremendous amount of gameplay potential to the experience.

Nearly three years ago, Tomorrow Corporation brought Little Inferno to the eShop in time for the Wii U’s launch. The studio is now almost ready to release its next game, Human Resource Machine. Just a few weeks ago, an announcement was made confirming a Wii U launch for October 14.

We recently got in touch with Tomorrow Corporation’s Kyle Gabler in hopes of learning more about Human Resource Machine. Gabler shared more information about the game and talked about what we can expect from the Wii U version, and also touched on a few other topics like the Nindies community and the difficulties of being a small team.

Damon Baker is Nintendo of America’s Senior Marketing Manager of Publisher and Developer Relations. He’s also the new face of the company’s indie efforts.

Over the past few months, Baker has led the way on a couple of surprising and interesting eShop programs from Nintendo. The Humble Nindie Bundle was made available in late May, and just a few weeks later, Nintendo introduced [email protected]. Along with providing Wii U owners with the opportunity to try out new indie titles well before their release during E3 week, [email protected] had the added bonus of giving those who downloaded the demos a 15 percent discount when the full games launch.

We recently had a chat with Damon Baker to go more in depth regarding [email protected] Our discussion included talk about how the idea came to be, the challenges of bringing it to fruition, and the possibility of seeing it again in the future. Head past the break to read our full interview.

Zordix announced Aqua Moto Racing Utopia for Wii U last February. We haven’t heard much about the game over the past year, so we reached out to the studio for a status update. Larsson revealed that the game has made the jump to Unity 5, discussed DLC plans, teased a probable New 3DS exclusive, and more.

Read on below for our full interview with Matti Larsson, CEO and creative director at Zordix AB. You’ll also find an exclusive new screenshot showing how the updated UI looks.

The news of Legend of Kay’s revival was unexpected, to say the least. It originally launched for the PlayStation 2 back in 2005, and ended up as more of a niche platformer for the console. Yet now the game is back in a remastered format for Wii U and a few other platforms, thanks to Nordic Games and developer Kaiko.

Nordic recently announced that Legend of Kay Anniversary is slated for spring. With the title’s launch coming sooner rather than later, we caught up with Kaiko’s Peter Thierolf for an interview. We asked Thierolf about why Legend of Kay is returning after so many years, what sort of improvements are being implemented, how it will play on Wii U, and more.

Recently speaking with Gamereactor Magazine, Eiji Aonuma delved a bit into the sheer mass of the newest installment of Zelda currently in development for Wii U:

A huge, seamlessly unfolding world is something that can’t be achieved if the hardware isn’t advanced enough. Ever since we made the very first generation of Legend of Zelda games though, we’ve had as large a world as can be realised with the hardware, so you could say it was inevitable that we’ve now done the same with the new Wii U title.

When I first showed off the new Zelda game on the Wii U, it seemed everyone was very excited and started proclaiming that a Zelda game had at last become open world! Zelda games have always allowed you to roam and explore a huge world.

What’s changed now is that the hardware has progressed to the point that you can now explore this vast world seamlessly; the underpinning of the game hasn’t changed.

Continuing with the interview, Aonuma also talks a little bit about the implementation of the Wii U Gamepad:

Recently, I’ve taken to relying on the map on my smart phone when I’m out walking in a place I’m not familiar with. A map isn’t something you keep tucked away in your bag, it’s by holding it in your hand and being able to constantly check it as you move forward step by step that gives you that sense of adventure.

You can read the rest of the interview in the new issue of Gamereactor Magazine, which is out today.

We’ve been keeping close track of IronFall Invasion since its reveal last year. The game finally resurfaced during this month’s Nintendo Direct, and VD-Dev confirmed that its debut 3DS eShop project will be launching soon.

Since IronFall Invasion is just on the horizon, we thought we’d catch up with the studio’s Fernando Velez one final time. Velez shed more light on the game’s campaign, multiplayer, and much more.

To be the main voice in a strange Japanese RPG that seemed fated for nothing but cult status in the west probably wasn’t the most notable credit on actor Adam Howden’s resume at the time of recording. Indeed, he did the beloved voice of Shulk in Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii – and by proxy, Smash Bros. – but has also lent his voice to things like Assassin’s Creed and The Old Republic, and it’s more or less chance that the 2011 (or 2012… or 2010, depending on your region…) ended up being his most renowned role, at least among the Nintendo-focused.

For some strange reason – being the talent that he is – Adam agreed to answer a few of our questions about Xenoblade, Smash Bros., and voice acting in general in an email interview we did. You can read all of what he had to say after the break!